When she arrives in the mornings, she immediately points to the barn and insists on going up to give the horses cookies. If you're walking with her (she can walk quite a lot if you hold her hand), she will drag you over to the cookie jar and if you pick her up and open the jar, she will squeal and then pick out a cookie. You go over to the horse and you give the cookie to the horse, then she points back to the cookie jar and rinse, repeat until all the horses are IR).
When TC was at my boarding barn, I'd stop in once or twice a week on the days that she was there, when I had time, to ride double with her on Sundance. Luckily Sundance is the perfect kid's pony! He was bought with her in mind before she was even born and he's a really good boy with her. He walks slowly when she's on his back and is happy to walk, trot, and even canter (yes, she cantered for the first time with me when she was just 12 months old! I'm lucky that my brother and SIL trust me lol).
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| Apparently TC's first schooling show was six years ago this week! |
Now that TC is there and I have to ride him most days, I am there a lot more and so get to ride with her more often. But unfortunately TC is my priority and in the past when I'd run out of time and have to run back home or take a meeting or teach a lesson, I would just leave the barn and head out without riding with the kiddo, and she had no idea that I was anywhere nearby!
Unfortunately now she can see me when I'm riding TC and she gets a bit upset if I don't ride with her on Sundance first. Luckily I've been able to make time most days, but on Tuesday of this week, I just didn't have the time.
Now, I told my dad this and recommended that he keep her inside for my ride and then come outside in the afternoon to feed cookies and do barn stuff. She's associated me with riding so if I'm not at the barn, she doesn't get her hopes up.
That didn't happen and soon I had a horse who was pawing aggressively in the cross ties wanting me to hurry up and get on him so we could go ride, and a child who was slowly walking around with my dad, showing him where her helmet was, insisting that he put it on her, and pointing at the bridle and the horse and me. Um, wrong horse, kiddo!
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| Baby TC was so dark! |
TC is NOT a kid's horse. I did not buy him with that in mind. I do not plan on having my own children, I plan on being that awesome aunt who brings you weird things from her travels and who always has an extra horse for you to ride.
I gave in and told my dad to just come have her watch me ride and that MAYBE if TC was being good, she could sit on him at the very end.
Normally when she comes down to the arena, she just walks around and occasionally sits in the sand while whoever is watching her tries to keep her from putting sand in her mouth. But me being aunt Megan, I bought her some sand toys and my dad thought he'd bring the baby, a sand toy, and a folding stool down to the arena to play in the corner while I rode.
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| Want to bombproof a horse? Ride around tiny children lol |
As TC and I were getting into the arena, that whole ordeal walked across the bridge and my dad was juggling too many things, so TC sees the stool get chucked over the gate into the grass around the arena (no reaction from TC). Then my niece started shrieking and pointing at me (no reaction from TC). And they finally make it to the sand pile while my dad sits down in the stool and gets my niece set up with the unfortunately loud sand toy (no reaction from TC). And he then determined it was too hot, so got up to toss his jacket on the mounting block (no reaction from TC).
All of this happens throughout the ride, and TC did not care one bit except he'd occasionally slow down to see if we could stop to talk to them. No spooking, no scooting, no snorting, no tension. Focused completely on me with one ear occasionally glancing over to check on them and see if maybe we could hang out with them.
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| Good baby horse! |
Kiddo was entertained for my trot work and then started getting really frustrated because: she was in the arena, she had her helmet on, she saw aunt Megan riding, and it was obviously her turn to ride. And she does not care what horse she gets on, as long as it's a horse.
With TC being so good with all the activity, I told my dad that she could sit on TC and then she could go back to the house for the rest of my ride and I'd make time later in the week. I was kind of concerned so I had my dad hold onto her, ready to grab her off, and I just stuck her right in front of me on the pommel. She was SO happy and waved and shrieked and giggled and started doing this weird posting like thing that she does when she wants the horse to go faster. TC didn't react, just flipped an ear on us and stood quietly with a foot rested.
Right around then, my mom came out from around the bushes (no reaction from TC) and wanted to take pictures. She told me I was in a bad location (too shady) for a picture so I had to move TC and my dad stepped away to give me room to move around... with the baby in front of me on the pommel.
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| He's long thought that anything humans do is a-okay because he loves humans |
This led to TC giving his first pony ride!!!! I NEVER thought he'd be a good horse for a literal baby to ride. I figured he might like having a junior, like a strong junior rider in their teens... But here he is walking the slowest he's ever walked around in a circle with my chatty, waving niece who is just having the time of her life up there having no idea that this horse used to be a highly reactive, chronic bolter.
He kept flipping an ear back on us every few steps and stayed so slow and so relaxed and honestly seemed like he was having such a nice time. He really likes my niece on the ground, he lets her pat his head kind of aggressively (trying to teach her to be gentle lol) and tug on his nostrils and kick his lips and he just leans into it because any attention is good attention for him. But he's really taken with her.
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| How freaking cute is this??? |
I'm still so giddy that TC was so good with her. And now I feel way better about letting her ride him during our walk breaks and play in the corner while I work him. He was able to stay focused despite all the activity in the corner of the arena and he happily transitioned from the higher tone, higher energy work we were doing to plodding along for a pony ride, then back to some collected canter work with some lead changes while she swung on her swing waving at us from across the creek.
It's been such a journey with this horse and every time we hit another milestone I just smile. He now rarely bolts or bucks, he's just happy to do his work every day. He can go to any location and be the same horse he always is. He's the BEST trail horse I've ever had. He's completely non reactive to the craziness that is living at the ranch. And not in a shut down way, but in an "oh, that's interesting" way.
And add to that, he's an amazing pony ride horse. Never thought I'd get to that point. I've long thought that he'd be a great horse for us to ride double on the trails on when she's old enough to realize that she needs to hold herself on the horse (right now I hold her on) and when he's a few years older. But I get to enjoy him with her now, how great!
I just love this horse!
